Privacy

Analog survival in a digital age

Maybe it’s just the remarkable advertising profile Facebook has given me, but adverts on my Facebook wall have been strange for a while. Endless Kickstarter wristwatch suggestions have just given way to middle-aged women with the intention to show their knickers. Written in fluent Gibberish, this particular one reads something like On the feelings of a woman alone, you will have experienced differently. Passion impulse, tremendous delight from here. Recipes, tips and all things kitchen for any level of chef. The links leads to either this blank website or this Facebook page with a picture of a smiling girl. Strange, isn’t it? Who pays for such useless publicity?

With Edward Snowden’s quote that with every concession to our online privacy we are moving towards a turn-key tirrany, I decided to dig through Facebook settings to find what kind of profile the social media behemoth is building of me. Turns out I am a bible-reading Yugoslavic communist member of the Masonic brotherhood with a Eugenist tendency and a preference for kinky lingerie. Slightly relieved that at least some of my privacy measures are throwing them off, it is worrysome that such data is being mined.

Remember what a relief is was when AdBlockers finally got really good and all pop-ups, pop-unders, banners, commercial videos, and the like were eliminated and you could actually surf in peace again? More and more websites started detecting AdBlockers and implementing nagging messages that you should switch them off. Recently this got more aggressive, with an increasing amount of websites banning access when they noticed a blocker, anti-Adblock if you will. You probably guessed the response: there is an anti-anti-Adblock strategy available. The Anti-Adblock killer consists of a series of 4 steps to restore you blissful surfing pleasure:

Browse down to Step 1 and install the Script Manager. Basically this is a little add-on that allows the use of little formulas that slightly change how a website is displayed.

Install the Addblock killer script (the little formula)

Install the Adblocker add-on of your choice in Step 2 (you can skip this if you already have one installed)

Click Subscribe, so your browser keeps up to date about sites that detect Adblockers. Done!

AdBlock recently came available for iOS, so you can use it in combination with Safari on your iPad/IPhone. More about that, later.